How to Draw a Troll

Trolls are fearsome and vile creatures of myth and legend. Many live in swamps or under bridges as thieves and hungry, murderous monsters. Some say that troll heal themselves at rapid rates and that a woodsman's ax will hew a limb only to see it horrifically sprout back to life. Trolls have been a staple of fairy tales and modern fantasy novels. Here we will show you how to take basic shapes and a skeletal frame and create your own vile troll to hang on your wall.

Instructions

1. 

   Begin by drawing the basic frame. Draw an oval for the head, a large rectangular oval for the chest, a cylinder for the west and a triangular shape for the waist. Add arms and legs with simple lines. Make small circles for shoulders, elbows, knees and hands. Add thin triangles for ears. Create the axe with bent line ending in an oval shape.

2. 

   Thicken the frame by drawing cylinders on the troll. Add cylinders to the arms, forearms, legs and calves. Flesh out the axe handle by drawing parallel lines around the handle.

3. 

   Add in muscle guidelines with oblong football shapes. Add these to the shoulders, two on the arms for biceps and triceps and two on the forearms. Add more football shapes to the upper legs and calves. Draw abdominal muscles with small squares in the center of the stomach. Mark out some facial guidelines with some diagonal lines for the eyes, nose and thick eyebrow muscles.

4. 

   Add the final detail guidelines. Create the loincloth with a jagged triangular shape. Add the belt with medium and smaller circles across the waist. Add diagonal lines across the handle of the ax and on the top of the stone head of the axe. On the face, add a mouth with a small line and a tooth jutting out with a small triangle. Add pupils with small circles inside the eyes.

5. 

   Begin adding details and shading to the frame. Add warts to the shoulders, forearms, head, legs and back. Add dark shadows around the eyes to make the troll look even more menacing. Add lines along the handle of the stone ax to show that it is made of wood. Create the fur on the loincloth with small lines that alternate between light and heavy strokes. Darken under the arms and add shadows under the ax.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be afraid to work in more details on the frame in the final stages. You can find some interesting details when you play with the drawing.